Fixing Illinois woes | Obama's speech | Sun-Times rips Rauner

President Barack Obama didn't leave Illinois a moment too soon. A sobering report by the Civic Federation offers a blueprint to rescue the state from its financial woes that would surely have soured everyone's mood.

The plan, which includes an income tax hike and a 3 percent cut in spending, “will offend almost every political faction in the state to some extent,” Greg Hinz writes. Take that and try to “build a better politics.”

The report contains recommendations the fiscal policy group issued nearly a year ago, such as taxing retirement income and expanding the sales tax to cover more services. But the report goes further because of the state's worsening financial condition.

Among the new points likely to spark controversy: enacting a constitutional amendment to permit prospective changes to public employee pension benefits, and shifting the Chicago teachers' pension fund's $9.59 billion in unfunded liabilities to the state retirement system.

It's the people, not the politicians, pushing partisanship

President Barack Obama called on politicians to embrace compromise and eschew vitriolic attacks during his speech at the State Capitol in Springfield, a message that was widely anticipated. Yet the primary victories of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and businessman Donald Trump say something else, Greg Hinz writes.

“If the results from (the) primary election in New Hampshire are any indication,” Hinz says, “the core of both political parties and millions of voters throughout the country are interested in something else: rumbling. Beating the other guys. Having it their way.”

Obamas: Urban pioneers

Most of the people advising the president and first lady Michelle Obama on his planned presidential library prefer the “nitty-gritty” neighborhood around Washington Park over a location in Jackson Park, near the Museum of Science and Industry, according to a key member of the team assisting the Obamas on the selection of an architect.

"The Washington Park site is the more exciting possibility because it is the less conventionally 'presidential' site,” New York architecture critic Paul Goldberger said in an interview with architecture news site Common Edge.

With many vacant lots in the area, at least there will be plenty of unobstructed views of the presidential center. Goldberger's comments are the first indication of how the selection process is proceeding, the Tribune says.

Sun-Times: Rauner is the 'heart of the problem'

Speaking of the need to compromise, the Chicago Sun-Times takes Gov. Bruce Rauner to task in a sternly worded editorial.

“Rauner charged into office promising dramatic pro-business, anti-union reforms, but he's fast shaping up as one of the least successful and most politically inept governors in the state's history,” the newspaper says.

After a solid, and surprising, second-place finish in the New Hampshire Republican presidential primary, John Kasich has a daunting to-do list, including getting a massive infusion of cash and creating a political network from scratch in many states, the Washington Post reports.

“We have a rationale now for our candidacy,” a campaign strategist said.

You might say, “About time,” since it's been nearly seven months since the Ohio governor announced his candidacy. But at least Kasich has found a rationale, which is more than you can say for Ben Carson.

Madame Secretary, I'm runnin' for governor

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was paid $280,000 for a speech to private-equity firm GTCR in 2014, while one of its former principals was running a fierce campaign against Democratic incumbent Gov. Pat Quinn, Chicago magazine reports.

Rauner left the firm in 2012 and it could not be determined whether he met Clinton, but still. The prospect of a conversation on politics between the two of them is intriguing. It was one of three speeches she gave in Chicago from January 2014 through May 2015, which paid a total of $770,000.

Intervention needed for tax addiction

Two days after aldermen balked at Emanuel's plan to increase taxes on tobacco products by $6 million, saying it would increase the illegal sale of individual cigarettes, hurting stores, the mayor responded by aiming to double the fines for sales of "loosies" to $5,000 for the first offense, and $10,000 for additional violations, DNAinfo reports.

It's hard to see the loosie trade being so lucrative that the city will actually collect those bigger fines. Yet Emanuel also vowed to step up city and police enforcement, as if the Chicago Police Department doesn't have its hands full.

Emanuel's ordinance seeking the higher fines passed the Finance Committee, but a handful of dissenting aldermen delayed a vote by the full council until the next meeting.

Burns speaks up on his way to his lobbying job

The City Council gave Chicago Inspector General Joseph Ferguson the power to investigate its members for ethical violations and criminal conduct, but as expected barred him from auditing their spending, the Tribune reports.

Arguing in favor of limiting the Inspector General's jurisdiction was Ald. Will Burns, 4th, a key Emanuel ally who is leaving the council. Burns, a former state representative, is going to work for Airbnb, which is battling proposals by the mayor and some aldermen to increases taxes and regulations on Internet vacation rentals. Note to Ferguson: Burns is barred from lobbying the council for a year.

Small change for quaintness

Ald. Brian Hopkins, 2nd, has introduced an ordinance into the City Council to give subsidies to “legacy” cafés and stores that contribute "to the neighborhood's history and/or identity," Greg Hinz reports. Hopkins said he patterned his ordinance after one in that do-gooder paradise of government regulation, San Francisco.

The subsidies would be small, about $23,750 a year for a company with 25 employees and 2,500 square feet, for example. The payments would be financed with a 2 percent hike in the license fees paid by other firms, which might not think the “legacy” stores are so charming.

A sprawling complex with no sign

The state's entire congressional delegation, speaking of bipartisanship, is lobbying for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency to move a facility that employs 3,100 people from St. Louis to Scott Air Force Base in Illinois, about 30 miles east, according to the Belleville News-Democrat, which is not a very bipartisan name.

In a governmental version of the Braggin' Rights basketball game, Missouri officials are offering a new location in St. Louis. But where better to hide a spy operation than St. Clair County? A decision is expected in mid-March.

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